Photonics Unfettered: Beam-Steering, Spatial-Light Modulators, and Superfast Microscopy

"It's fun," says research scientist Janelle Shane of her perpetual learning curve at Boulder Nonlinear Systems, a custom light-control manufacturing company. "This was my first job after my PhD. I knew I wanted to go into industry, and this merges post-doc-style research with business." With her colleagues, Shane works on projects that encompass a multitude of optics-related technologies, from nonmechanical beamsteering for planetary landers and self-driving cars, to ultrafast microscopy and spatial light modulators for neuroscientists. "We're driven by cutting-edge science and pushed to build something new," she says.